Chennai secure win off the last ball

Faf du Plessis stroked his way to a 52-ball 73 but Chennai Super Kings had to wait till the very last ball before eking out a seven-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals in a thrilling Indian Premier League match.

Needing two runs off the last ball of the match, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni clipped Stuart Binny off his pads to help the Super Kings overhaul the target of 147 set by Rajasthan.

Du Plessis was the main scorer as he smashed six fours and two sixes to set the tone for the defending champions at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

This was Super Kings' fourth win from seven matches while Rajasthan, who had four wins prior to this match, suffered their third defeat in this edition of the Twenty20 league.

Chasing a rather modest total, the Super Kings were off to a sedate start, going by T20 standards, as openers du Plessis and Subramaniam Badrinath (15) added 55 runs in eight overs.

Brad Hogg gave the visitors their first breakthrough when he had Badrinath stumped by Shreevats Goswami with a ball that had a bit of flight.

The dismissal, though, hardly had any effect on du Plessis as he continued with his attacking game and, along with Suresh Raina, added 61 runs for the second wicket, much to the delight of the home crowd. Raina scored 26 runs in 24 balls and hit three fours.

While he started hitting fours from the second over, du Plessis struck his first six in the seventh over, when Ashok Menaria's delivery was lofted over the extra-cover region.

The South African struck his second six, against Siddharth Trivedi, before Kevon Cooper brought to an end his stay by having the batsman caught by Goswami.

Cooper then sent back Raina, thanks to Ajinkya Rahane's excellent catch in the deep, but skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja denied the visitors any further success while taking Chennai home.

Earlier, the Super Kings rode on a disciplined bowling display to restrict Rajasthan to a modest total despite a half century by Owais Shah on a sweltering day.

Electing to bat on what looked like a slow pitch, the Rajasthan Royals batsmen started off in a brilliant fashion, scoring 15 runs off Dwayne Bravo's first over.

They were 34 for no loss by the fourth over before Ravichandran Ashwin put the brakes on the scoring rate.

Ashwin gave his team a vital breakthrough when he dismissed an in-form Rahane (15) off the third ball of his spell.

Rahane looked in good nick, opening his account with a cover drive off Nuwan Kulasekara. The batsman then stroked Bravo through mid-off and pulled the second delivery of his over through the vacant square-leg region to stamp his authority on the Chennai bowlers.

He, however, got out while trying to go over mid-off only managing to give a simple catch to Kulasekara.

Rahane's dismissal brought Shah to the middle - the English recruit took seven balls to open his account before hitting Shadab Jakati over the mid-on fence to bring the second six of the innings.

Rahul Dravid, at the other end, was going nicely, hitting three boundaries and a six before his 26-run innings was cut short by Jakati.

With the scorecard reading two for 50 at the end of the eighth over, the onus was again on Shah to take his team to a respectable total.

Shah, in the company of Menaria, stitched a 92-run third-wicket partnership off just 65 balls to help the visitors post a modest total. After a sedate start both the batsmen opened up. Menaria, in particular, was lucky to survive the initial few balls from Ashwin.

Shah carried on his good work with yet another substantial knock, which helped his side to a respectable total, but not quite an imposing one.

James Anderson and Stuart Broad reduced the West Indies to 84 for four at lunch on the first day of the second Test at Trent Bridge here on Friday, as the tourists suffered another collapse.
But Shivnarine Chanderpaul, officially the world's best batsman, was still there on 19 not out after defying England's attack for more than 10 hours during West Indies' five-wicket defeat in the first Test at Lord's.

Murali Vijay became the first Indian to hammer two centuries in the Indian Premier League as Chennai Super Kings stormed into final with an 86-run win over Delhi Daredevils on Friday.
The opener cracked four sixes and 15 fours in his quickfire 58-ball 113 as defending champions Chennai posted a commanding 222-5 off their 20 overs before dismissing Delhi for 136 at the Chidambaram stadium in Chennai.